I'm so overwhelmed, sad, upset..........I don't know. I knew he was allergic to environmental things and suspected preservatives and artificial stuff but I just said to test everything else just for giggles right?

Oh man, before the ENT even handed the 5 page results over to me he said that most were positive Ladies, MOST of the foods he tested for are positive, most of the environmental things he's positive.

He had a RAST (IgE) immediate allergy testing, here are the positives:

And environmental: he tested positive for 31 out of 33 possible He starts his allergy shots this week and I don't know what to feed him! Oh my gosh, I am so lost! I also feel like a horrible mother since I have MADE him eat his green beans and tomato's in the past and he's allergic to them, they probably made him sick or something.

And then he also had his mole removed and that was quite hard also but that seems to be the least of our problems. How am I going to feed him? I cannot have wheat and anything with gluten in it and so I eat a lot of rice and corn based things but he cannot have these things either!

I'm so sorry to vent like this but I haven't been able to talk to my BF IRL, Brian or my mother all day. They are all gone to where I cannot reach them so it's been pent up inside of me all day long while I was out. Thanks for reading.

Okay, if it were me, this is what I would do, given my own experience:

First, I would not assume he is allergic to all those things. Yes, the tests were positive, but I would go back to the allergist asap and say, "Look, this is a quality of life issue, I need help to figure out what this kid really needs to avoid and what he can actually have."

A year or so ago my oldest had some mild positive test results to foods that he hadn't reacted to before. And my allergist asked me: "Has he been eating these (e.g. sesame seeds, coconut) with no problem?" He had. So she said to keep letting him eat it but just keep an eye on him. Which we did - and so far, no problem with either. (Although he does not like coconut so who knows... but sesame seeds are totally fine.)

So my experience has been that the allergist looks at the skin tests, the blood tests, and the history - i.e. what the child has reacted to and what he has not reacted to - to see what really needs to be avoided. You cannot base it all on one kind of test. History is critical.

I'm also quite shocked that they sent you on your way without offering any guidance or assistance at all. That is just not right, given that huge list of things to supposedly avoid. Did they not even offer to help you find a nutritionist or dietitian??

And I just realized - you said the ENT handed you the results. Has an allergist seen these results? For me, that is critical. They are trained specialists. No offence to ENT folks, but food allergies are not their speciality, as far as I know...

So I would get to an allergist if one hasn't yet seen these results yet, and mention the quality of life issue and the need to really sort things out.

Hope these thoughts help. I know how overwhelming it can be... but I would not take these test results as gospel, personally. I think there is more work to be done before you take all of these foods out of your child's diet.

Related to what Karen mentioned. I was reading the an article about the rise in food allergies in the latest edition of Allergic Living. It quoted one doctor (Tim Vander Leek) as saying that "one of his biggest pet peeves is when he sees family doctors and other allergists perform large screens of skin prick and blood tests when a person hasn't eaten or reacted to those foods. Now this individual is being given a list of foods that they need to avoid that isn't based on anything that has actually happened to them, many of those foods they could have tolerated without any problems." Another doctor agreed saying that "a skin prick test in the absence of patient history has a false positive rate as high as 50 per cent" So the process of diagnosing your son should also include a detailed history of what foods your he has eaten without a reaction.

I have a friend who drank milk and ate eggs fine but reacted to cashews. But when she had allergy tests done she came back as a 2 to milk and a 3 to egg (out of 6) but the doc told her should could keep eating them since she was fine before (but of course like Karen mentioned they told to be aware of that when she ate them and to monitor for any reaction).

I hope you receive more clarification soon.

_________________2.5 year old: allergic to wheat, dairy, egg, peanut, oat, turkey, and cats
5 year old: no known allergies
Husband no known allergies
Me allergy to morphine only

This is all great advice! I will weed through all the information I am gleaning here and other places and work with it. Keegan has a follow-up appt. on Thursday so I will be asking but essentially, my DH and I have said that we will eliminate the highest classes and just monitor the rest so your advice is agreeable We have a family history of wheat, gluten and dairy issues so those aren't surprising in the least.

Keegan's had rashes that we couldn't pin-point so we ran all the tests to get an idea but I didn't expect so many. We know that milk was part of the problem for his severe eczema and wheat possibly. We shall see!

"We have to keep in mind that because of the high incidence of false negative, and sometimes false positive results, estimates of the efficacy of skin and blood tests for food allergy never exceed 50%, and many practitioners rate them even lower. Even when a positive skin or blood test indicates the presence of anti-food IgE, elimination and challenge must be undertaken to demonstrate that the food does in fact cause clinical symptoms when it is consumed."

My DH and I have decided that the classes 3+ will be eliminated and taken seriously, the others we will keep in mind and if his issues don't clear up, we can go down the list and eliminate one at a time until we figure it out. That will make this MUCH easier!

Good for you....it is so very hard to think about what you can realistically do when emotions are running so high. Give yourself a huge pat on the back for being able to take in the shock, deal with it and come up with such a reasonable safe plan - all in less than a week (AMAZING!)!. This is all such hard work, and you are doing it, one day at a time!

Good for you....it is so very hard to think about what you can realistically do when emotions are running so high. Give yourself a huge pat on the back for being able to take in the shock, deal with it and come up with such a reasonable safe plan - all in less than a week (AMAZING!)!. This is all such hard work, and you are doing it, one day at a time!

Thank you! I needed this from somebody

The elimination is slow going and I am learning a ton! Our biggest hurdle right now is corn and all of it's derivatives! I have a list just short of a mile long that I am going through and it's overwhelming! Keegan is doing well and isn't too upset about giving up his bread or popcorn. The soda has been fairly simple as we can get pure cane sweetened soda's here instead of the high fructose corn syrup sweetened kind. He's being a trooper

About twenty years ago I was tested and was told I was allergic to basically everything, needless to say I left that appointment very afraid to eat anything (even things I have never reacted to before) I believed the Doctor and lived that way for about fifteen years. I have since seen another Doctor who said this could not be so when I showed him the allergy tests I had had years before. He did his own set of tests only to find me reacting to everything as well, not feeling that this could be possible he actually did a scratch test on my skin with a stick and I quickly swelled up!! He asked me to return two weeks later to start all over again. His feeling was that he had never seen some of my reactions (cashew nuts...) so bad in years! But he felt that some of the things I was showing a reaction to were just, how do I say on my skin but I should have no problem eating them. So I left that appointment now able to eat fish (not shellfish) and mellons. I took about a year to eat mellons (I love them and eat pleanty) I have yet to eat much fish except tuna since I have for so long put the smell into my being as something to avoid.

Me-allergy to peanut/treenut/shellfish/coconut/ASA/asthma
My children no allergies

_________________Me-Allergic to Peanut, Tree Nut, Coconut, Shellfish, ASA and Asthma
My Husband and Children No Allergies

The allergy book that I'm reading right now also mentions how many false positives with skin prick tests there can be - I will dig up the number when I am home - and how important HISTORY is. If you have eaten the food with no problems (remembering that eating a food is the "gold standard" food challenge), then you are not allergic to it.

It's sad and maddening that doctors do these tests on people and send them away without (a) helping them to look at the big picture and (b) really ensuring that their patients are truly allergic to the foods.

We have added in most of the foods back into his diet and will just keep them in the back of our minds for now The corn makes me scratch my head and I think it may only be the concentrated sugars such as in the high fructose corn syrup and the such, KWIM? He seems fine when he eats popcorn or straight from the cob. I'm confused about the whole thing though. He broke out when he drank Sunny D (HIGHLY concentrated HFCS) and he breaks out when he has soda with HFCS.

Oh anyway, the one I am greatly concerned about is the peanuts, the others we just watch and don't worry about.

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